A few days after the raid in the “Reichsbürger” milieu, the members of the Bundestag learned more details about the conspiracy. Arrests and executions were to take place during the planned overthrow. Companies have already been formed for this purpose in three federal states.
The “Reichsbürger” group, which was lifted out last week, apparently had many more accomplices than previously known. Members of the Bundestag’s Legal Affairs Committee reported in the afternoon after a special meeting in Berlin that investigators had found a three-digit number of “non-disclosure agreements” from people who had been approached by the group.
According to the deputies, the alleged conspirators had planned to form more than 280 “homeland security companies” nationwide. According to a representative of the federal prosecutor’s office, they should have “arrested and executed” people in the event of an overthrow, said committee member Clara Bünger. There have already been concrete preparations for this in Saxony, Thuringia and Baden-Württemberg, said the left-wing politician.
Even if there is no indication that an attempted coup was imminent, the threat here should be taken seriously because of the high level of violence on the part of those involved, emphasized the legal policy spokesman for the Union faction, Günter Krings. Katrin Helling-Plahr said the case was “terrifying” both in terms of the number of people involved and the group’s financial resources.
During the searches, more than 400,000 euros in cash, gold and silver coins were found, said Bünger. There should also be a locker in which there should be gold bars worth six million euros. For the inner circle of the conspirators, there was a satellite phone to communicate securely internally. A communication intercepted by the security authorities was about access to the Bundestag, Bünger reported from the meeting.
“Reich citizens” are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures. On Wednesday, the federal prosecutor’s office had 25 suspected “Reich citizens” arrested, including former officers and police officers. She accuses 22 of those arrested of being a member of a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system. Three arrested are considered supporters. The 23 suspects arrested in Germany are in custody.
A decision is to be made next week on the extradition of a 64-year-old German ex-officer who was arrested near the Italian city of Perugia. In the hotel room of the former colonel of a special unit of the Bundeswehr, the police found “various material that can be traced back to the anti-state activities of the terrorist organization,” as reported. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, there are 27 other suspects in the investigation in addition to those arrested. During the searches on Wednesday, weapons were found, among other things, including three live firearms.
The Greens chairman Omid Nouripour said that one not only had to point out that in the course of the investigation with Birgit Malsack-Winkemann a former AfD member of the Bundestag was taken into custody, “but that if you look at which ideologies come together there, then the AfD is actually the parliamentary arm of those who don’t want this republic”. It is alarming that the suspects in this case also include members of the Bundeswehr and police officers.
A search in the spring found a list of prominent names on one of the suspects. What he intended with the list is still unclear. The Greens domestic politician Misbah Khan said that the leader of the Union parliamentary group, Friedrich Merz, and the former Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, are also on this list, showing that “the danger from the right also applies to the Union”. It is important “to act together as democrats against the threats and attacks from the right”.
